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Whatever Became of Washington's Birthday?

Jason Bezis, a law student at the University of California at Berkeley, has always harbored a special appreciation for our first president. He wants the nation to refer to our annual Februrary federal holiday by its given name: Washington's Birthday.

Update: This story aired in 2001, but Bezis has continued his campaign. And in February 2005, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), renewed his own bid to restore the name of the holiday, offering his proposed Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act to Congress. He first pushed the legislation forward in 1999.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

As NPR's senior national correspondent, Linda Wertheimer travels the country and the globe for NPR News, bringing her unique insights and wealth of experience to bear on the day's top news stories.
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